In-House Legal Counsel & Company Secretary

How to Apply: Interested and qualified candidates should apply through the WTS Energy careers portal at www.wtsenergy.com. Ensure your application highlights your LLB, Advocate of the High Court of Kenya status, LSK membership, and ICS qualification.

Proving Boardroom-Ready Legal Judgment in Energy and Infrastructure

This role sits at the intersection of law, governance, and high-stakes energy operations. The hiring panel will be looking for evidence that you can handle complex contracts, manage external counsel, and advise a board without hand-holding. Your application needs to show you have done this in a regulated sector, not just in theory.

1. Lead with your post-qualification years and sector exposure: The posting asks for a minimum of 7 years' post-qualification experience, so make that number visible early in your CV summary. If you have worked in oil and gas, energy, waste management, or another regulated industry, put that front and centre. Recruiters screening for this role will quickly filter out candidates without that depth. Use your professional summary to state your years of practice, your current LSK and ICS status, and the regulated sectors you have supported.

2. Showcase contract drafting and negotiation wins: The role involves drafting, reviewing, and negotiating commercial, procurement, and service contracts. On your CV, replace generic phrases like 'drafted contracts' with specifics: the type of contract, the value or complexity, and the outcome. For example, 'Negotiated a KES 200M service agreement with a multinational oilfield services provider, reducing liability exposure by 30%.' Hiring managers want to see that you understand commercial risk, not just legal language.

3. Demonstrate company secretarial competence: As Company Secretary, you will support Board and shareholder meetings, resolutions, minutes, and statutory filings. Prepare to discuss your experience with board packs, minute-taking, and maintaining statutory registers. If you have served as a company secretary or assistant secretary, quantify the number of board meetings you supported per year and the types of resolutions you handled. Mention any experience with the eCitizen or Business Registration Service portals for filings.

4. Prepare for questions on litigation and external counsel management: The role requires managing litigation, claims, and arbitration, including coordinating external advocates. Be ready to talk about a specific dispute you managed from instruction to resolution. Explain how you selected external counsel, monitored costs, and reported to management. Interviewers will probe your ability to make cost-benefit decisions on settling versus litigating. Have a clear example where your judgment saved the company money or reputation.

5. Highlight experience with subsidiaries, SPVs, and JVs: The posting explicitly mentions supporting subsidiaries, SPVs, JVs, and corporate transactions. If you have worked on corporate structuring, share transfers, or joint venture agreements, detail them. Even if your experience is in a different sector, show how you handled multi-entity compliance and governance. This is a differentiator for candidates coming from energy or infrastructure backgrounds.

6. Show regulatory compliance muscle: Monitoring licences, permits, and statutory obligations is a core duty. On your CV, list the regulators you have interacted with (e.g., EPRA, NEMA, KRA, or the Petroleum Institute). Describe how you built compliance trackers or calendars to avoid lapses. Interviewers may ask how you would handle a sudden regulatory change affecting upstream operations. Have a structured approach ready: assess impact, advise management, and update policies.

7. Prove you can work independently and advise at board level: The role reports to the GCEO and advises the Board. You need to show you can operate without constant supervision and communicate legal risk in plain business language. Prepare examples where you pushed back on a commercial decision due to legal risk and how you framed your advice. Avoid legalese in your interview answers; instead, explain the risk, the options, and your recommendation.

8. Brush up on upstream oil and gas terminology: Even if your experience is in another regulated sector, familiarise yourself with JOAs, JVs, PSAs, and oilfield services contracts. The posting says exposure to upstream operations is an added advantage, so showing basic fluency will set you apart. Read up on the Petroleum Act and model contracts used in Kenya's upstream sector. In the interview, connect your transferable skills to the specific legal needs of an energy company.